The Sweet Light of Cali
by Frederic Marile
Summary: About a band of six girls trying to make a living in Los Angeles. Probably a lot better than it first sounds.
1. Sounds Like a Cure for Stomach Cancer

**Hi, people, it's me Fredface. I've been compelled to write another story. Big surprise, right? Well, yeah. I've decided to…**

**SCRIPT MY OWN TELEVISION SHOW! WHOO!**

**Except I'm going to write it in quotation instead of colon format. That's just easier for me.**

**It's going to be called "Sweet Light of Cali".**

**Kinda corny, but I'll explain.**

**See, I want it to be about this band my sister and her friends want to make. It's officially called Paranormality.**

**Anyway, the show is about them. That's all.**

**By the way, I'm going to be writing chapters by the episode. So this first chapter is the first episode.**

**So I want to know how you guys like it. Now let's go!**

**:::::**

"Hello, peoples!" Britannica called from in the hallway, lugging quite a few bags on her arms. "What's up, girls?"

"Well, you know, besides everything that goes on between us, nothing," Alice replied in a dark voice, clutching a pillow to her chest and sitting on the couch with her eyes narrowed. "Nothing at all."

"Shut up, Alice," Rosemary demanded from on the computer chair. "She's being defensive," she snidely informed Britannica.

"No, _she's_ being stupid and rude," Alice protested, throwing her pillow at Rosemary and narrowly missing.

"Wow, it's been thirty seconds here and I'm already bummed out," Britannica mused. "I think I'm going to leave now while you two figure out whatever is you're fighting about. Besides, there were some cute boots at the store and they were calling my name. So, uh…see ya."

"No!" Alice cried, jumping from the couch and latching on to Britannica's leg. "You can't leave, Brit! You have to stay here and solve our problem for us! That's your job in life!"

"Alice, if you keep doing that, I might lose my balance and drop something on you," Britannica warned her.

Alice immediately assumed a "puppy dog faced" expression. Britannica bit her lip.

"You know I _do_ have better things to do than reconcile whatever's going on between you two," she said uncertainly. Alice continued making the face.

"Please, Alice, stop," Britannica pleaded. "That makes me uncomfortable."

"Hi, girls," someone suddenly called from behind the two. Britannica and Alice both jumped about two feet in the air.

"Oh gosh," Alice breathed. "What is it, Lilly?"

Lilly skipped towards the middle of the living room with a box in her arms. "I was wondering if you have anything going on right now," she explained.

"Alice is making me solve some fight between her and Rosemary," Britannica told her.

"Oh, so I see you have nothing going on," Lilly giggled. "So I was thinking you might all want to go out for ice cream. I got some money from that one guy."

"But Lilly," Britannica protested, "I'm diabetic."

"I know," Lilly agreed, skipping away. "Gazelle, get out of the shower!" she shouted from the bottom of the stairwell. "We're going out for ice cream!"

"I don't want ice cream!" Gazelle called from upstairs.

"'Kay, I'll meet you all in the car," Lilly said sweetly before dashing out the door.

**:::::**

_My hair is blowing in the wind as I walk down the street_

_I know that I should take I hint from everyone that I meet_

_So turn your head to the sky_

_And we'll find out how to fly_

_And I know just what to do_

'_Cause there's no place I'd rather be, than here with you_

_I'm gonna strut my stuff today_

_Don't know if I'll do what you say_

_But I'm gonna look into the light_

_Over the rainbow_

_Some days I'm up, some days I'm down_

_But that's just life so go to town_

_But I swear, I'll meet you there tonight_

_At the end of the slideshow_

_But I swear I'll meet you there tonight_

_At the end of the slideshow_

**:::::**

"Hey, guys, open the door!" Lilly called from outside. "We have ice cream!"

"Coming," Ashie, who was standing at the door, replied. She opened the door and reached her hand to take two cones.

"How did you answer that fast?" Gazelle asked confusedly.

"I was right here," Ashie answered, walking down the hall.

"Then why'd you say 'coming'?" Lilly asked.

"…I don't know…" Ashie said, looking at the floor.

"Uh, don't sweat it, Ashie," Gazelle assured her hastily.

The three of them walked down the hall and into the empty living room. Gazelle sighed before opening her mouth and screaming, "Ice cream! Get it! Now!"

Britannica, Alice, and Rosemary arrived instantaneously. "You didn't get ice cream for _me,_ did you?" Britannica demanded. "You know I'm diabetic!"

"You are?" Gazelle asked. "I didn't know."

"Lilly did," Britannica explained, folding her arms.

"I may not have been listening," Lilly said sheepishly. "You know I forget to sometimes."

"Yeah, right, whatever," Britannica groaned, snatching cones and cups from the three who had originally held them and placing them on the table. "Let's eat."

As the girls ate, Alice and Rosemary glared at each other. Alice dropped her fist with her spoon in it into her ice cream again and again, splashing the dessert all over the table.

"Alice," Lilly called across the table, "if you keep doing that, your cup or spoon might slip and someone could get hurt."

"Well, we wouldn't want that to happen," Alice muttered.

"This is really good," Gazelle murmured through at least five mouthfuls of ice cream.

"Have you had ice cream lately?" Rosemary asked.

"Not really," Gazelle answered. "I didn't think I liked it too much, but this is great! Britannica, you're not going to finish yours, right?"

"No…" Britannica confirmed confusedly.

"Thank you," Gazelle said, taking the cone and starting on it. Britannica stared at her.

"Gazelle, you know if you eat too much sugar and fat, you can really get heart problems and all that stuff."

"And I would really be okay with that," Gazelle replied through more ice cream.

**:::::**

"You're standing in front of my set," Rosemary complained to Alice.

"You're standing in front of my case," Alice retorted.

"So move," Rosemary ordered.

"You move first."

"I don't feel like it."

"Okay, what's going on?" Lilly asked hopelessly, dashing towards Alice and Rosemary. "Are we having problems again?"

"No," Alice lied, storming upstairs. Lilly turned to Rosemary.

"Maybe," Rosemary answered, rolling her eyes.

"Why do you two hate each other so much?" Lilly asked.

"I don't know," Rosemary mumbled, following Alice upstairs. Lilly sighed and ran to join her.

Britannica met her at the top, staring after the other two and shaking her head. "Oh, Lilly," she said sadly. "This is bad."

"I know is it," Lilly agreed. "They fight all the time, it's sick."

Britannica stared at her for a second. "Oh, I wasn't talking about them," she said confusedly. "I meant Gazelle."

"What about Gazelle?" Lilly asked, chuckling.

"I can't get her to stop eating ice cream. It's sick. She just gobbles it up." Suddenly lowering her voice, Britannica continued. "I bought enough ice cream for us to have for two months, and she eaten half of it."

"Brit, I don't think this is a key issue here," Lilly told her. "Alice and Rosemary could actually hurt each other."

"And Gazelle could actually explode," Britannica replied. "I mean, come on."

Lilly stared at her and sighed, walking away.

"What? I'm really worried about-"

Britannica was interrupted by a soft melody resounding from behind her ear. "Uh, I think your hair is singing," Lilly laughed.

"I keep my phone here," Britannica explained. "I don't want to have to search through my handbag."

"Handbag?" Lilly repeated. "Why don't you just say purse?"

"Purse sounds like a cure for stomach cancer," Britannica replied as she pressed the 'talk' button on her cell phone.

"I am so sad to be able to say I know you," Lilly sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"Hello?" Britannica said. "Oh, Oliver, hi. Huh? That's-that's today?"

"What's he saying? What's today?" Lilly asked. Britannica held up a finger to quiet her.

"What?" she continued. "I thought we were supposed to come in tomorrow. But-but Oliver-but you said we had this day off-I know we have rehearsing tomorrow too-but Ol-Oliver-Oliver! You…he hung up on me."

"Who _was_ that?" Alice asked, taking a bite of an apple as she walked into the room from the kitchen.

"Oliver," Britannica answered.

"Dupree?" Rosemary guessed, following Alice.

"No, Oliver Twist," Britannica replied sarcastically.

"What'd he want?" Gazelle asked, licking her empty ice cream bowl clean.

"He said we have to work on harmonies today at three," Britannica replied.

The other collectively groaned. "But he told us this morning we wouldn't be needed until tomorrow!" Ashie whined.

"We were supposed to get this day off!" Alice pouted.

"I know, girls," Britannica sympathized. "You know, as much as I like Oliver for being our producer-manager and our songwriter guy, he _is_ kind of manipulative and demanding. I guess if we drive to the record company, we can get Oliver to switch the dates."

"But the record building is all the way in Anaheim!" Rosemary protested.

"Stop your whining," Alice told her disgustedly.

"Hey, if it doesn't work, the worst that can happen is we're early for harmonies," Lilly pointed out.

"And I'd like to sleep in our bedrooms at the record building," Gazelle commented, placing her bowl in the sink. "Anything to get out of here for at least a night."

"Hey, this is one of the most prestigious mansions in Hollywood," Britannica snapped. "We paid good money for this."

"Yep," Gazelle agreed, stretching, "but sometimes I wish we hadn't."

"Just get in the van," Britannica ordered.

"Touchy," Gazelle muttered as she walked outside with the rest of the gang. "So can we go for ice cream on the way to the Anaheim?"

"No," the others replied at the same time, annoyed.

**And… go to commercial!**

**:::::**

**And…we're back.**

"_Seventy bottles of pop on the wall, seventy bottles of pop,_" Lilly sang.

"_Take one down, pass it around,_" Alice continued.

"_Sixty-nine bottles of pop on the wall!_" Everyone not in the front seats chimed (which was to say, everyone besides Britannica, who was grinding her teeth, and Ashie, who was asleep).

"_Sixty-nine bottles of pop on the wall, sixty-nine bottles of-_"

"Just shut up!" Britannica shouted. Everyone else jumped. "Thank you," Britannica said, much more calmly.

"But Brit, we had sixty-nine bottles left to go!" Lilly complained. "You _could_ have at least let us get to fifty."

"Yes, but then I would have gone insane," Britannica snarled. "Besides, we're almost to English Records."

"English?" Rosemary repeated. "I didn't know it was called that. Isn't it a bit nationalist?"

"No," Britannica replied briefly. "It's named after its founder, Danielle English."

"Whose last name is English?" Rosemary chortled.

"Our boss's grandmother's last name is English," Britannica answered.

"Who's our boss right now, then?" Rosemary asked.

"You don't know a lot of things, don't you?" Alice asked, glaring at Rosemary.

"Jessica Knight is our boss right now, don't you remember?" Gazelle reminded her.

"Not ringing a bell…" Rosemary murmured "Why isn't it ringing a bell?"

"Because you're stupid and rude," Alice replied.

"Hey, I may be rude, but I'm not stupid!" Rosemary protested.

"Yeah, you are," Alice disagreed.

"No, I'm not," Rosemary said angrily.

"No, you're not." Alice smiled.

"Yes, I am," Rosemary snapped before gaping at Alice.

"See? You're stupid!" Alice laughed.

"Well, here we are," Britannica sighed, pulling the van up to a large glass building. The top half was painted navy blue and the bottom half crimson. A large bright yellow zigzag line separated the halves. Printed in large white block letters on the top was "DREAM TODAY", and on the bottom was printed "LIVE TOMORROW". A flashy neon sign in front of the building in blue violet, pale orange, and forest green read, "English Records-Visitors Welcome if Accompanied by Employee or Talent."

"Every time I come here, I'm reminded of how weird Jessica's tastes are," Lilly commented.

"Hey, it _is_ cute…you know, the whole, "dream today" thing?" Alice blinked a few times as she looked up at the building. The gang walked inside.

"Oh, Britannica!" cried a voice from down the ornate hall. A rather tall, rather slender young man walked up to them. "It's great to see you!"

"Hey, Oliver," Britannica answered tiredly. "Now where do you want us-"

"I'd actually like you to come with me to Mrs. Knight's office," Oliver interrupted her. "I have news from her that you need to hear."

So the group walked up to the second floor and into the main office. It wasn't too short a walk because the stairs were just down the next hall and the office was right across from the top of the stairwell.

The main office was decorated extremely oddly. A disco ball hung from the ceiling, and it was decorated to look like a spider's web. The west wall was painted to look like it was on fire, the east wall to look like outer space, and the otherwise blank north and south walls were covered with patches of plaid and tye-dye cloth respectively. At least thirty pictures of different animals hung on the walls, which Jessica Knight had told them many times were pictures of all of her pets. Finally, the floor was a bright pink carpet with red tulips. Jessica's cluttered brown wooden desk was the only thing in the room that actually looked normal. Eight white rocking chairs faced it. Right now, Jessica herself, who was blonde with blue eyes and currently wore a blue sparkly shirt and matching skirt, was sitting on top of her desk with her Toki Diago standing next to her.

"Good afternoon," Toki greeted them briefly. She was Japanese, but she was very fluent in English.

"Hi, girls!" she beamed in a loud, high-pitched voice. "I'm _so_ glad to see you! Sit down, all of you!"

The gang did so, though Oliver opted to stand. "Now, it's very nice seeing you today, but I'm afraid I must be serious for a moment."

"Jessica, serious?" Alice chuckled under her breath. "I'd like to see this."

"Now, as you all may remember, I had several teeny-tiny cameras placed in your house when you became a band and moved in. These not only allowed us to make sure no one broke in and took anything or hurt any of you, but also let me make sure you all obeyed English Records rules.

"And if you remember, one of these rules, specifically stated that there is to be no abuse between members. And it has recently come to my attention that between Alice and Rosemary there has been _a lot_ of verbal abuse in the last few months. And I can't accept that," Jessica finished sadly.

"But Mrs. Knight, it's just arguing!" Britannica was, as usual, the first to speak. "They aren't hurting each other or anything."

"I know," Jessica agreed. "Which is why my punishment will not be too severe. I want to be able to teach the two of you a lesson without really lashing out."

She fell silent for a few moments. "So?" Alice prompted her.

"What are you going to do?" Rosemary asked.

Jessica snapped back to attention. "Oh yes. I know you aren't going to love this, but…Alice, Rosemary, you are henceforth suspended from all musical activities concerning English Records until you can learn to get along."

Hopping off her desk and going around it to sit in the seat behind it, she said cheerfully, "That'll be all. Oliver, send them home, won't you?"

**:::::**

"This is all your fault!" Alice shouted.

"_My_ fault?" repeated Rosemary. "_You're_ the one who's always annoying me and being a sensitive-"

"Could you two be quiet for five seconds?" Lilly demanded. "It doesn't matter whose fault it is that you're suspended! The fact is, you two can never stop fighting and Jessica is mad about it! You should _both_ be ashamed!"

The gang was now driving home. They had sat in silence for the first twenty-five minutes before Alice had burst out.

"And without you two, Pink Rose Kitten is going to beat us out for number one on the charts," Gazelle whined.

"Who are they?" Rosemary asked confusedly.

"Do you live under a rock?" Alice squinted at Rosemary and raised her hands in a questioning gesture.

"I'm a priest!" Rosemary laughed mockingly, copying Alice's motion. Alice slapped her.

She glared in disbelief at Alice. "You. Did. Not," she seethed.

"Did too," Alice replied.

"You're acting like a couple of two-year-olds!" Lilly shouted, clutching both girls' shoulders. "Really, what is wrong with-why are we slowing down?"

She wasn't wrong; the van was quickly losing speed. "Britannica jammed her foot on the gas pedal, but nothing happened. Quite soon they had completely stopped.

"What's going on?" Alice cried, her fingers twitching and fear in her eyes. "Did we run into quicksand or something? Are we gonna sink?"

"No, we are not going to sink," Britannica answered. "But we have plenty of gas left so…I'll check under the hood."

She attempted to open her and found it stuck. "Okay, that's weird," she muttered. "Ashie, try to open your door please."

Ashie did so, but found that her own door wouldn't open either. The rest of the gang tried their doors and found that not a single one of them would budge. "This isn't fun," Ashie commented.

Everyone stared at her.

**:::::**

After about fifteen minutes of trying to open the doors or get the car to start moving, the gang effectively gave up. "Well, this is nice," Britannica sighed. "How do we get out? It's not like we have any way to smash the windows or anything."

"We're gonna melt in here!" Alice screamed, digging her fingernails into her scalp. "Brit, why did you have to leave the windows up in one-hundred degree weather?"

"Because studies show that having the air conditioner on drags the car down less and uses less gas that leaving the windows down," Britannica replied.

"Well, the air conditioner won't help us too much right now, will it!"

"Hey, don't yell at her, she's doing her best," Rosemary said, calmly but bitterly.

Alice took a few deep breaths in response. "Sorry, I just lost my cool for a second," she murmured.

Britannica rolled her eyes and took her cell phone off her ear. Quickly dialing a number, she listened for the other line. "Hello, Mrs. Knight. Yes, it's me. No, I didn't steal her phone, it's me! Yeah, we're in a bad position here. Our car is stuck and it won't move. No, Mrs. Knight, I would _never_ have thought of that. Of course I was being sarcastic. The doors won't open. No, it's-well, we're pretty far out there with no fan or air conditioner. Of course we'll survive, but some of us-well, Mrs. Knight, it's just that-really? A jackhammer? No, I don't have any better ideas. Really? No? Oh. How long? I'm sorry, Mrs. Knight, but I don't think a liston is a real measurement of time. Ten-Yes? A blue-stop repeating you? Oh. How fast will they be going? Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Knight."

"That was a really long conversation to say something really short," Lilly told her.

"Apparently, she's sent someone with a jackhammer to break down the doors for us and they'll be here soon," Britannica explained.

"How soon?" Gazelle asked.

"Ten minutes," Britannica answered irritably.

"See? _This_ is why we should have stopped for ice cream on the way to the record building!" Gazelle remarked.

"She's not wrong," Lilly agreed, shrugging.

"Oh, this is sad," Britannica almost, sobbed resting her head on the steering wheel. "We are six famous singers stuck on the side of the road at one-hundred degrees who can't get out of their car…and why isn't anyone even stopping to help?"

"The windows are tinted," Ashie replied. "No one knows we're in here."

"Why did we tint the windows again?" Britannica demanded to no one in particular, lifting her head back up and dropping her chin in her hands.

"Because it looked cool," Rosemary replied nervously.

"Which reminds me…you two," Britannica continued, pointing at Alice and Rosemary, "make up. Now."

"But-" Alice and Rosemary began at the same time.

"I don't want to hear it!" Britannica interrupted them. "Now make up!"

The two girls faced each other. "I, uh…I'm sorry?" Alice said quietly.

"Me too…" Rosemary replied. "And, um…" She held out her hand. Alice shook it.

"Are you apologizing or are you closing a deal? Hug already!" Britannica commanded.

The girls did so, failing to execute the hug correctly the first two times. But after they did, Britannica smiled. "See? Being here in a van in one-hundred degree weather with no way out helped you be friends and-"

"You guys are Paranormality, right?" a man suddenly called from behind them. They all looked in the direction of the voice to see a construction worker with a jackhammer in his hands. Without waiting for an answer, he turned it on and crushed the door next to Alice.

"Out of my way!" Rosemary shouted, pushing past Alice to get outside. Alice shoved her back. The two of them soon got themselves into a shoving fight.

"Well, that was nice while it lasted," Britannica muttered.

**And commercial again.**

**:::::**

"Well, I see the getting along went well," Jessica said from behind Britannica, startling her.

The entire gang had gotten out of the van by now, and the workers were now fixing the transmission and checking for engine problems. The girls were sitting or standing in different places on the highway, and the workers had to set up a large barrier so other people on the highway would drive elsewhere and allow them to do their work.

"Oh, Mrs. Knight, I didn't know you were here," Britannica told her. "Trust me, they made up, it's just…old habits die hard, I guess."

"You're _absolutely sure_ they made up?" Jessica asked suspiciously.

"They hugged," Britannica informed her.

Jessica stared long and hard at her. "Well, I can't prove you wrong, so…I guess they're welcome back to the band."

"Really? That's it?" Britannica asked, sounding surprised. "Don't you want to ask them?"

"Ah, not really," Jessica replied. "You're the _only_ one of my bands that I actually like, and I'd hate to lose you girls."

"You really like us?"

"'Course I do!" she answered. "…But you're paying for the van."

**:::::**

**And that's it, guys! How did you like it? Tell me what you thought of everyone and everything, please.**


	2. Holly's Dorky Violon Lessons

**Hey, guys! It's me, Freddy again. I shall finally be getting around to posting another chapter of my television series. Get psyched!**  
**Yeah. I own everything that isn't a pop culture reference or has to do with pop culture in any way, SO DON'T STEAL IT!**

**Please?**

**Anyway, let's go.**

**:::::**

"Hey, look at this!" Lilly called to whomever may have been listening from the couch. She held the remote in one hand and a bag of potato chips in the other. "They have a special on Fame Game coming on!"

Britannica and Rosemary walked in from the kitchen. "Lilly? Seriously? Potato chips? Those are salty and full of Trans fat and cholesterol," the former reprimanded her. The latter stared at her with her head cocked sideways.

"Not true," Lilly argued, holding the bag up for her to see. "They're 0 grams of Trans fat. Besides, you've known about Couch Tater Tuesday for almost a year now."

Britannica rolled her eyes. "And why are we watching Fame Game anyway?" she asked. "It's all trash."

"No, this is real stuff," Lilly replied defensively. "I like this show. Now be quiet and sit down."

So the two sat down with her and looked expectantly at the television. A commercial had just ended, and on TV, a camera began to pan around what looked like a studio. At a half-circular desk sat Jade Sterling, a classic interviewer and exclusive gossip columnist, in her traditional fuchsia velvet pants suit. On the desk sat her half-empty cup of coffee that she never picked up; in her hands was a manila envelope. "Thank you, Catrice," she acknowledged another person across the room in her poisoned-honey voice with a smile that would burn your retinas out. "Thank you for the show."

The camera panned to the other end of the room. At a director's chair sat another young woman chewing on an apple. Her mousy brown hair was tangled, and her red tank top and dark blue denim shorts were sun-bleached to pink and sky-colored. Her eyes her dull blue, and her already pale skin appeared annoyingly gray in the light. She herself seemed quaintly uninterested in what Jade was saying. Finishing the bite of her apple slowly, she replied, "No problem, Jade. It was very nice of you to give me another chance at this, especially after the whole restaurant incident."

"Right…" Jade stretched out the word. "Have a nice day now, Ms. Lavish."

Catrice Lavish stood up, stretched amidst a disturbing meowing sound, and skipped off the set with a half-grin.

"That, ladies and gentlemen," Jade laughed, the smile never leaving her face, "was Catrice Lavish. After her little breakdown, do you keep her to her word of getting back to the top? I, Jade Sterling, leave it to you to decide. You can go to to vote on whether you think Catrice will make up for the accident."

"She is a _disaster_," Britannica chuckled. "By the way, Rosemary, she's the singer from Pink Rose Kitten, in case you were wondering."

"Sad to think we're even of the same species," Rosemary said, sounding honestly embarrassed. "I wish I didn't know who she was now."

"Now, I'm going to introduce you to a newcomer to Fame Game," Jade explained. "You may have heard of them already, but if you haven't, well, you're in for a pleasant surprise! Famous for their new hit single, _Make You Smile_, from the album of the same name, please welcome Holly Shelston and Olivia Silvers from My Broken Bliss!"

Two girls walked onto the set from the side opposite that from Catrice had exited. The first thing that struck the three watching was their age. They couldn't have been over thirteen. The first one was far too happy for her own good. She had impossibly curly blonde hair and impossibly blue eyes. She sported a short red dress with small white polka dots and sleeves and black gloves. On top of this she wore a red tie and necklace. She also had on white stockings with red high heels. Her eyes twinkled beautifully and her hair shone in the light with a sheen that actually garnered an "ooh" from the audience. In short, she was a bright, impossible girl.

Her companion was far easier to look at. Her brown hair and eyes completely contrasted the first girl. She wore a white dress shirt above a dark blue frilly skirt. Over gray stockings, she wore white suede mules. To finish the look, she donned a thick black scarf.

"Oh my gosh! I have no idea who they are," Britannica chuckled sarcastically, walking into the kitchen and returning shortly with a glass of orange juice.

"Hello, girls," Jade greeted them, gesturing towards the director's chair. The brown-haired girl stood behind while the blonde sat. The brunette took out a pink brush and brushed the blonde's hair. "I'm excited to have you here, girls," Jade continued. "Now…tell me a little about yourselves."

The blonde smiled a smile that almost rivaled Jade's and began to talk in a bird-like voice. "Well, my name is Holly. Olivia here and I have been best friends forever, and we've been dreaming of singing professionally since…when was it, Olivia? Five years? Six?"

Olivia nodded, never taking her eyes off Holly's hair. "So Olivia and I, a few weeks ago we decide we're finally gonna be singers. And the rest…well, you know."

"Very good," Jade commented. "Now, tell me your thoughts on some of your new people. You know…your elders. The veterans of Fame Game. What do you have to say about them?"

Holly frowned. "Well, that's actually something I wanted to get around to talking about," she answered. "It's complicated. See, we have a problem with a specific band."

Jade looked insufferably excited. "Well, would you like to share it with us?"

"Well, I know we aren't very popular yet, and we do entirely different types of music, so some of our fans don't know this…but you know Paranormality, right?" Holly asked. "Well, on their new album that came out the other day, we noticed a little something. Olivia?"

Olivia stopped brushing Holly's hair, removed a CD case from her purse, and began speaking. "The new Paranormality album, _Goodbye Gravity,_ came out exactly four days ago. Track ten, _Radio Skyline_, shares its name with track five on our CD, which was released to the public two weeks previous to the release of Paranormality's album. This seems harmless enough, but upon listening to the track, Holly and I found that it is the same song with a faster tempo and a few minor lyrical adjustments. We feel-"

"It's just not nice," Holly interrupted her. "I mean, who just goes and just steals songs like that? I mean, they sing well, and they're otherwise decent people, but we're having serious problems liking them after what they did to us."

"Insightful," Jade remarked. By now all three girls were staring wide-eyed at the television.

Suddenly Alice burst in the door with a piece of paper in her hands and rushed up the stairs towards the girls. "You've gotta read this!" she ordered.

"What?" Britannica demanded, snatching the paper from her. Reading it over, she looked worriedly at the others. "This says we're under terms copyright infringement and legal issues concerning song theft!"

"In English?" Rosemary asked.

"Is this a bad thing?" Lilly added.

"Holly Shelston and Olivia Silvers are suing us for two hundred thousand dollars!" Britannica cried.

"Okay, so this is a bad thing."

**:::::**

_My hair is blowing in the wind as I walk down the street_

_I know that I should take I hint from everyone that I meet_

_So turn your head to the sky_

_And we'll find out how to fly_

_And I know just what to do_

'_Cause there's no place I'd rather be, than here with you_

_I'm gonna strut my stuff today_

_Don't know if I'll do what you say_

_But I'm gonna look into the light_

_Over the rainbow_

_Some days I'm up, some days I'm down_

_But that's just life so go to town_

_But I swear, I'll meet you there tonight_

_At the end of the slideshow_

_But I swear I'll meet you there tonight_

_At the end of the slideshow_

**:::::**

"This is awful!" Gazelle sobbed, pacing around the living room. "How can they _do_ this? We didn't know these people before today, and they're accusing us of this, and why would they do something like this to us? I'm scared, guys, and…"

After a moment, she suddenly fainted, hitting the floor with a loud thud.

"That was nice," Rosemary muttered.

"Well, she isn't wrong, we have to do something about this," Britannica sighed. "I don't know what's going on with Holly and Olivia, but maybe it isn't their fault. Maybe their bosses and songwriters stole the song and told them it was original."

"But Olivia is smart," Lilly argued. "She would look into other songs by that name, and she'd eventually figure out what happened."

"The only problem is, how did they do it?" Alice put in. "Our album was out the other day, and theirs is a couple of weeks old. How would they be able to hear our song?"

"They didn't do it, but people are stupid," Britannica answered. "Remember last month when we released that video thingy with the song in it? People are forgetting that that was earlier than their album, and so few people actually bothered to listen to the song that hardly anybody will complain."

"So it's simple," Ashie decided. "We go to Jade, explain the whole thing, and put Holly and Olivia to shame. It's not like Jade can say no, right? Right?"

**:::::**

"Please leave!" Jade almost yelled, no trace of a smile on her face. She and the band were currently standing in the middle of the stage with many producers and other famous people observing the spectacle.

The girls stared at her. "Well…it wasn't _exactly_ no," Ashie mumbled.

"I and my show have no place for no-talent, song-stealing, proletarian filth like you," Jade continued haughtily, crossing her arms.

"Okay, wait," Alice requested. "You're a _talk show host_. How the heck do you know the word 'proletarian'?"

"I don't know the word proletarian," Rosemary protested.

"Why does that not surprise me?" Lilly muttered.

"First of all, I have an IQ of 132," Jade began.

"Did you get that off a quiz on the Internet?" Britannica asked with a mocking smile.

"Maybe. Second of all, as said previously by Yours Truly, I have no time to speak to worthless people who can't write their own songs. I mean, those poor girls are thirteen! How could you just take a song like that from thirteen-year-olds?"

"Holly and Olivia are not as innocent as they look!" Britannica pleaded.

"And Holly doesn't look that angelic anyway!" Alice added.

"Somebody ring?" Holly called from across the room, strutting towards Jade and the girls, Olivia following close behind.

"You're trying to tell me that-" Jade indicated Holly and Olivia-"isn't innocent?"

Holly stopped right in front of Jade with a confused look on her face. Her gaze then turned towards the band and dropped slightly. "Oh, hello…" she greeted them softly. "Nice to meet you…I love your music…"

"Oh!" Jade cried sweetly, covering her cheeks with her hands with an even wider smile than she usually wore.

Britannica glared sourly at Holly before sighing and turning towards her friends. "I guess this was a lost cause, girls," she decided. Suddenly a familiar melody sounded from her hair. She looked straight forward and unlatched her cell phone from behind her ear. "Oh, no," she said quietly.

"Who is it?" Alice asked.

"Oliver," Britannica replied.

"Put him on speaker," Gazelle suggested.

Britannica pressed said button and the nine young women were greeted by a piercingly loud: _"Get your pretty little faces to the studio, now!"_ The band all simply winced; they were used to Oliver screaming this way when he got upset. Jade stared in shock at the phone. Holly clapped her hands over her ears, and Olivia tumbled off the center platform of the stage.

"Am I the only one who doesn't want to go the studio?" Britannica dared to ask.

"Eh, anything beats _this_ place," Gazelle murmured.

"You know, Gazelle, you've _got_ to stop saying everything that comes into your mind-" Britannica began.

"And you're leaving, and you're leaving, still leaving," Jade chanted, collectively pushing them off the stage.

**:::::**

**And go to commercial.**

**:::::**

"Well, here we are," Britannica sighed, pulling the gearshift into park. "We'd better go see what Oliver wanted us so badly for."

"Do we have any other options?" Lilly asked.

Britannica stared out the windshield for a moment. "Not really, let's go."

They all hurried into the building, where Oliver was there waiting for them, tapping his foot impatiently. "What took you so long?" he demanded. "Mrs. Knight needs to see you. What for should be very obvious to you by now."

"Jeez," Britannica said as he led them upstairs into Jessica's office.

"Hello, girlies," Jessica greeted them with a withered smile. "Nice to see you again. Twice in one week, isn't it? Impressive."

"Look, Mrs. Knight, we apologize sincerely for what happened-" Britannica began.

"I talk first," Jessica interrupted her. "First of all, as we all know, Oliver does in fact write your songs, so technically he should be to blame in the public eye. But of course…the public eye is under the impression that you write your own songs, so things like this tend to fall on you, don't they?"

"Yes, ma'am," Britannica agreed.

Jessica then stood up, the smile creeping away. "I have a chart," she explained. "I am very proud of my chart. Toki, go get my chart, will you? You know, the one I am very proud of?"

Toki nodded and rushed into a side room, hauling out a large line graph on an easel. A long baton lay on the easel, which Jessica snatched up and slapped on the left side of the graph.

"This graph charts the average number of viewers that watch Fame Game on that little magical radio-video box we call television," Jessica explained. "Since Fame Game's premiere episode in 2005, when the number of viewers totaled twenty thousand, the amount has increased dramatically with each day. This week's episode gathered five million watchers, the highest since episode one thousand two hundred twenty five."

"The Christmas one with the songs and stuff?" Rosemary asked.

"Exactly," Jessica replied. "Now think about this. _Five million people_ just witnessed Holly Shelston claim that you girls stole a song from her and Olivia. When five million people think that you stole a song, what do you think it does for your reputation?"

"Uh…" Britannica tried to answer.

"Toki, please fetch my _other_ chart, will you? You know, the one I am _almost_ as proud of?"

Toki nodded again and dashed back into the side room, returning shortly with another chart on another easel.

"Now this chart," Jessica began, slapping her baton on the new graph, "tells us how popular Paranormality has been since the release of their first album. Notice there are actually two graphs here, the first being a function of total music subscribers to months, the other being a function of net earnings to months. As you can see, both lines have steadily risen since the first album's release-until this morning." She pointed with the baton at the right side of the first chart. "If you'll look here, _six million_ people canceled subscriptions from Paranormality's music since nine this morning, and it's-" She looked at Toki's watch-"Eleven o'clock! That's more people than actually watched the show, girls!

"Now…" Jessica breathed out. "We understand full well that you are not to blame for this, but that the public eye has forgotten who really owns this song, because the public eye is fickle and unintelligent. Now…how do de we set the public eye straight?"

"You really like the phrase 'public eye', don't you?" Britannica asked.

"What do you mean?"

The girls stared at her for a moment. "Whatever," Britannica muttered. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Knight-"

" _I am still talking,_" Jessica growled. The girls stared at her in fear. "Thank you. Now, girls…I for one am at a loss for a solution, but Oliver has put to us an idea."

"Oh, this oughta be good," Gazelle chuckled. "Tell us, Olley. Tell us your genius plan."

Oliver gave her a smile that said "I'm going to slap you so hard" before beginning to explain. "I think that there might be a psychological reasoning behind this theft. If you girls go to Holly and Olivia and ask them about this whole situation, maybe we can get a good explanation. It's pretty simple, really, but I guess that's why I'm the brains of this operation…" He trailed off, becoming quieter as he neared the last words.

"Yes, however, _I'm_ the _owner_ of this operation who can fire and replace you in nothing flat," Jessica reminded him cheekily. "But we're going with your plan anyway. Girls, why don't you take a trip to Holly and Olivia's house. Toki's looked up and written down directions. Shouldn't be too hard to find, I think."

She handed them a slip of paper with hastily scrawled directions. "But…but they're all the way in Santa Barbara!" Britannica protested.

"Yes, and I don't care," Jessica agreed. "Just do it so we don't have to kill the building." Walking to the wall and hugging it, she murmured, "I love this building…"

**:::::**

"Well, this is it," Britannica announced, parking the car on the curb next to a very large brown wooden mansion. "Holly and Olivia's."

"The demon cave," Lilly corrected her. "I really don't want to go in that place."

"Well, we don't much of a choice," Britannica told her. "If we don't find _some_ way to make everyone realize that we didn't steal the song, we're dead."

The girls walked in single file to the black front door. Britannica knocked carefully, and after a few seconds it opened to Holly. "Oh hey!" she greeted them. "Nice to see you again. Come in, come in! Olivia, get us some hot chocolate already!"

"Sure thing, Holly," Olivia confirmed, retreating to the kitchen and returning almost immediately with eight mugs of hot chocolate, four in her hands, three in her elbows, and one on her head.

"Thank you, Olivia," Holly acknowledged her, handing a mug to everyone. The band stared at her in utter confusion and outrage as they accepted their mugs. "So. Something you want to talk about?"

"Yeah," Rosemary said angrily.

"Kinda!" Alice added.

"You see, we're a little miffed about you, um…_stealing_ our song," Britannica explained.

"…You are?" Holly asked confusedly. "We didn't know that…"

The band exchanged a look of confusion and shock. "You didn't?" Lilly demanded. "How the-how could you possibly not know we were angry about that?"

"We figured you'd think it was funny," Olivia answered, shrugging.

"Also we needed the money," Holly added.

Britannica narrowed her eyes. "But…you're already international stars. Why in the world would you need more money?"

"Well, we need to be able to pay for the mansion, and the car, and my make-up specialist, and Holly's dorky violin lessons," Holly explained.

"Wait wait wait," Britannica stopped her. "The mansion? The car? You're thirteen. I mean, you're thirteen, right?"

"Correct," Olivia confirmed. "But we wanted to live by ourselves, and we decided to keep the car until we're old enough to drive."

The band all stared at them both. "Okay, you people are seriously disturbed," Gazelle told them, eyes twitching. "I don't know how you got it, but you just are."

Britannica sighed. "Okay, girls, could you just sign this form saying that the song is ours?" she asked, handing Holly a contract that was folded in thirds.

"Does this reflect bad on us?" Holly asked, unfolding the form.

"Not at all," Britannica assured her. "We just give it to the press, and everything smoothens over. Nothing bad for you."

Olivia looked it over. "Wait, please," she requested, eyeing the paper carefully. "This nullifies our lawsuit against you, doesn't it?"

"Um…yeah, that's right," Britannica replied. "That's not a problem, is it?"

Olivia and Holly stared at each other before returning to look at the band. "Actually, yes," Holly answered. "As previously stated, we need money. That's really the only reason we're suing you."

"So you're _not_ going to sign it without us giving you money you don't deserve?" Alice demanded.

"Nope," Holly answered curtly, pursing her lips.

"Come on, this is insane!" Rosemary cried.

"Can't we just go with an out-of-court settlement?" Gazelle asked.

"Gazelle, we are not giving them money!" Britannica almost yelled.

"You're not?" Holly asked, her head tilted to the side.

"We're not!" Britannica answered.

Olivia and Holly whispered for a moment with each other. Finally Olivia took the contract and folded it again. "Then I'm sorry, girls," she said without a single trace of regret, "but we can't sign this contract." She handed the paper to Britannica in a very fancy, overdrawn fashion, as though she were entrusting to the band news from a top-secret government agency.

All the girls stared at them in horror. "Please tell me you're kidding," Ashie pleaded.

"Sorry, girls," Holly replied, standing and brushing her profound bangs from her shiny forehead. Turning to look at the band with narrowed eyes, she added, "And please don't come back. We don't have enough hot chocolate for all of you to be flouncing your dresses and skirts and jeans in here all the time."

**:::::**

"They _what?_" Jessica screamed.

"Well, we told them we weren't going to give them money because they stole our song," Britannica repeated, "and they just decided not to sign the contract."

"Those manipulative brats and their egos and their stupid designer lives and…" Jessica breathed heavily for a few moments before turning to Toki. "Get me my pillow," she ordered.

Toki rushed into the closet for the third time and returned with a pink pillow very delicately stitched cat pattern in the middle of one side. "Thank you," Jessica mumbled, putting the pillow to her face and shrieking a string of phrases and sentences that the others couldn't quite make out but probably contained several expletives.

"You know…" Toki mused. "Paying the two of them might actually be the best idea."

"What?" everybody shouted. Even Jessica dropped the pillow and begged the question a split second afterwards.

"If we let them take us to court," Toki explained, "realistically, they're going to win."

"Why do you figure that?" Oliver asked, searching through papers.

"Because they're attractive young girls with a very _new_ singing career," Toki replied irritably. "However, if we go with the out-of-court settlement Miss Johnson seems to have suggested, we pay only slightly more than the actual lawsuit and, by law, we are allowed to keep the song on the album."

"Well…" Jessica sighed, picking the pillow back up. "I guess we gotta somehow scrounge two-and-a-half hundred grand."

"Somehow?" Lilly repeated. "Jessica, you could build another house with the bills you have."

"And still afford to pay both the mortgages," Alice added.

Jessica looked afraid of the idea. "Yeah…but I don't like _spending_ it…"

So the whole "Dream Today, Live Tomorrow" motto in neon on the front of the building, that was completely free?" Britannica asked sarcastically.

"Okay shut up!" Jessica shouted. "The point is, Toki's probably right. We don't have much of a choice here."

"I got it!" Oliver suddenly announced.

"What are you on about now? Another completely brilliant plan?" Jessica demanded.

"I really got it!" Oliver repeated happily.

"Well, what is it?"

"I have three forms here," Oliver began, showing everyone the papers. "This here is the release form for the video of Paranormality's _Radio Skyline,_ showing plainly that the release date to national television was exactly thirty-five days. The second one here says that the release date of Holly and Olivia's _My Broken Bliss_ was no more than seventeen days ago."

"That's wonderful!" Jessica gushed, her face finally brightening.

"But wait, there's more," Oliver continued, intentionally sounding like a telemarketer. "I hold here the most recent list of official talents signed to all American record companies. And guess what?"

"What's that?" Britannica asked.

"Holly and Olivia are not professionally signed singers!" Oliver replied. "They don't actually have a job as musical talents!"

"Oliver, that's amazing!" Jessica cried, making a pirouette and sitting back down in her chair. "So now we just take this to Jade Sterling and everything's fine, right?"

"And those girls get what they deserve," Ashie added.

"No…" Rosemary disagreed. "If they were going to get what they deserved, they'd be buried neck-deep in red ants."

**:::::**

"Well, I guess I can't argue with this," Jade murmured, looking over the papers. "I guess all I can say is…I'm sorry I made everyone think you stole the song. It's my fault, I guess."

"Yeah it is," Rosemary agreed.

"Shut up, Rosemary!" Lilly ordered. Rosemary rolled her eyes.

"So if you want, I'll go back on TV and tell everybody you aren't to blame," Jade offered.

The girls looked at each other. "No…I think that's fine," Britannica told her. Because according to our schedule, two special guests should be arriving in 3…2…"

At that exact moment, Holly and Olivia skipped into the studio through the same entrance by which the band had entered. They took one look at Jade with the papers and attempted to dash right back outside. Jade ordered two doormen to stop them, which they did with incredible ease.

"I know what you did," Jade told them. "And I _command_ you to go back on television and tell the world what dirty lying thieves you are."

"Well that's a bit harsh, isn't it?" Holly asked, trying to look as sweet as possible.

"No," Britannica almost laughed, approaching from behind. "So Jade…are we off the hook? Are you sure you can get everyone to like us again?"

"Absolutely," Jade confirmed. "I mean, I'm Jade Sterling. Everybody with even the slightest connection to technology listens to my words."

"I expected as much," Britannica agreed. "Oh, and Holly, Olivia? Good luck paying for the car and the house and the specialist."

"Don't forget the violin lessons," Olivia reminded her bitterly.

"Oh…you mean the _dorky_ violin lessons?" Britannica chuckled.

**:::::**

**There we are! Second episode finished! I hope you liked it, because this took me forfrickinever to write. Tell me what you thought!**

**See ya!**


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